RTCM 3

This last month was not so bad.
We started off by finishing Death of a Salesman, which turned out a lot better than expected. I'll say again that watching the movie before reading the book provided some good background and helped with directions etc. Death was not my favorite so far, but I'm sure it is still a good one to know, especially come May. At the pace we're going, I'm beginning to wonder what we are going to do second semester. We're getting through these books pretty quickly.
We also did another practice essay. These ones seem a lot more structured than other APs I've taken. It's a little annoying to me that the leadsshould have that almost cookie-cutter similarity.
Next we did those readings for Hamlet- reading and annotating those for each work we read is coming in handy. I am finding them very useful to reference when some of these plays stop making sense.
Somewhere in here Holmes graded our blogs. I'm going to thank her here for taking it easy this first go around.
And we finished with Hamlet. We still have a ways to go if we are to continue reading it in class as we have been, but I do appreciate the amount we are learning alng the way. Holmes' shared knowledge is helping me make connections that I hadn't before and see how the play is a lot more deeply rooted in its time than I picked up on in past readings.
I learned more about the other people in my class than I cared too through our little beginning-of-the-hour group discussions, thought more about Shakespeare than I'd ever needed to, and am enjoying reading Hamlet more than I ever have. So, again: All-in-all, not a bad month.

Death of a Salesman Analysis

Arthur Miller-

 Miller was a big name in the mid to late 20th century. He was a journalist prior to becoming a playwright, won many awards, has a theater named after him, and, most importantly, was married to Marilyn Monroe. Go get em, Arth. He actually went to the University of Michigan (also the location of his theater).

Setting-

The play is located in Brooklyn, but Willy finds himself on both Boston and Manhattan during his little dreams. In Brooklyn, the Loman house is set in the middle of  bunch of apartment houses. The buildings have blocked out the sun, indicating that the house is trapped and has been cut off from the sun/hope.

Summary- 

Willy comes home one night from a trip to Boston. He is met by Linda, who convinces him to talk to his boss to work in the city so he won't have to drive all day. In another room, Biff and Happy discuss their 'work' and Willy. In the kitchen, Willy flashes back to a young Biff and Happy, both of whom are very affectionate of Willy. Charley and Bernard make brief appearances- Biff is apparently struggling with math and Bernard is very smart and wants to help. Linda pops up, Willy talk about his trip, then Willy contradicts himself with the Chevy. Willy fades out and enters another dream with Woman. Woman and Willy briefly interact, then Willy finds himself in the kitchen with Linda. They talk about Biff and his popularity, then Willy returns to the present. He and his sons argue, then all go to bed. 

Next day, at breakfast. Biff tells Willy that he is going to see Bill Oliver, a past boss. He and Happy offer to take Willy to a nice dinner. Willy is very excited.

Willy appears with Howard. Howard and Willy listen the a recorded segment of Howard's family. Willy finally asks for a local job, Howard refuses and fires Willy. Willy leaves.

Willy goes to Charley's to borrow more money. He sees Bernard and the two talk about Biff's failures and how Willy affected them. Charley enters and gives Willy Money. Willy calls Charley his only friend.

Biff and Happy arrive at the restaurant. Happy flirts with some less than reputable females, Biff reveals that he was humiliated when Oliver didn't even recognize him. Needless to say, Biff did not get a job. 

Willy enters the scene and expects good news. He gets yelled at by Biff for being obstinate, and is taken back. He falls and Biff helps him to the washroom. Biff storms away, Happy following with the girls. They leave Willy in the washroom with his latest flashback. 

Biff basically walks in on Willy having an affair (at some point in the past). Biff is horrified, burns his U Virginia shoes (his dreams go up in flames), and runs away. Willy comes to and hurries to a seed store. 

Biff and Happy return home, where they are confronted by Linda. She yells at them. Willy is out planting a garden. Biff apologizes and cries on Willy's shoulder. Willy decides to kill himself so his family can have the insurance money. He crashes his car and dies. 

At the funeral only Linda, the boys, and Charley are present. Linda tells Willy that they are free. End.

Symbols-

Stockings (wealth/ease of life)

Seeds (hope)

The American Dream (why not)

Motifs-

Abandonment

The American Dream

Betrayal

Theme-

Entitlement for the idealized American Dream of financial and social prosperity can lead to tragedy.

Miller uses the city setting of a house surrounded by apartments to show how The American Dream has corrupted and choked out hope for a bright future. The entitlement is shown in characters' lack of effort to achieve their goals.

Quotes-

"I’ll see him in the morning; I’ll have a nice talk with him. I’ll get him a job selling. He could be big in no time."

"You've just seen a prince walk by. A fine, troubled prince. A hard-working, unappreciated prince. A pal, you understand? A good companion. Always for his boys."

Close Reading 11/9

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-parker-election-math-20141109-story.html

    The article above is about the frequent inconsistencies found in a two-party political system- or, more directly, how to break it. Matt Parker, the author, offers a few strong solutions to what he describes as "the two-party deadlock", reinforcing these ideas with details, structure, and language.
    The weakest of the three is language. Still utilized efficiently, the language Parker uses backs up his point well. From the beginning, Parker assumes an authoritative tone, which can partly be explained by his career choices. His bio states that he is the unlikely combination of mathematician and stand-up comedian. With that in mind, his writing can be considered extremely precise and calculated with an underlying whisper of sarcasm- like he's making fun of the topic that he's treating so seriously. Through his sort of colloquial explanations, Parker's choice of language convinces the reader that he knows exactly what he's saying and why, and that any argument against his could be easily discredited.
    Next comes details. Parker starts his article off with a series of statistics.
"Republican Rick Scott won the Florida midterm election for governor, but 51.8% of voters did not want him."
This excerpt is the first sentence of the piece. It is followed by another percentage, then readers see four more in the third paragraph. It may seem insignificant, but go read the article. Every stat is used to illustrate a point. The author does an excellent job of using facts to create ideas. He makes his thoughts on the matter sound as irrefutable as the details they are surrounded with. Parker uses these statistics to make readers believe that the two-party system is actually hindering progress and that his argument is more relevant than the parties themselves.
    Lastly. structure. The article does a good job of keeping readers interested with varying sentence length, but it also engage readers in other ways- Parker asks rhetorical questions, he provides answers to questions that haven't been asked, and he even occasionally baits readers. The varying sentence length is obvious, but another aspect of that is his use of different types of punctuation. I haven't seen much of it in past editorials but Parker's analytical thoughts are pronounced with colons, dashes, and quotes. The ways he forms his sentences keep the reader thinking about each point and transition smoothly into each other. Parker's article is very easy to read and remember as he uses precise structures to keep the reader in the article and up to speed with his own purposes.